How does a Harvard grad with an honors degree in economics end up as the newest member of the Forrester family? While it may seem like an impossible course, for Delon de Metz (Zende), it was destiny. Born and raised in Manhattan, de Metz attended the prestigious Horace Mann School, a private preparatory academy. “Growing up in the middle of the city, we had a lot of license to go out and run around the town and cause a little hell,” he recalls of his youth. “It was a fantastic time. If you are lucky enough to grow up in New York City, you recognize that and you appreciate it. I think New York is the best city in the world.”
De Metz was bitten by the acting bug in his sophomore year, when his mother persuaded him to take an acting class to prepare for college interviews. “My mom thought it would be good for me to have an acting skill set for everything: to loosen up in interviews, for public speaking. She thought if I wanted to go into politics, it would help there.” From then on, de Metz was hooked, but his folks insisted he focus on academics so they struck a deal: “My mom was like, ‘You go to school. You get your education, then if you want to do this, you can do it.’ ”
And, that’s what he did. “I’d been through working in finance and I did summers in investment banking, so that gave me a solid base for Harvard,” he notes. “My mom wanted to have her son be a Harvard graduate and I’m happy I was happy to give that to her.” De Metz’s hard work paid off when he graduated with honors and, having fulfilled his obligation, then set off to L.A. “I did not want to build a business career for 10, 15, 20, 30 years and then go, ‘Man, I wish I had done some acting. I miss that. Let me check it out now,’ ” he declares. “I was like, ‘This is where my heart is.’ Even though I went though all this schooling, I am not a risk-averse person. I like that there are no barriers to entry. I like that it’s extremely competitive and I also like that when you win, it’s a big win. Everyone in the world comes here to try and make it, so every time I booked something, I’d see, ‘How many people did I have to beat? How many people submitted for it?’ Every time I booked a job, even the small ones, it was still a big win.”
De Metz landed his first acting gig in 2011 on the Raven-Symoné series STATE OF GEORGIA — and hasn’t stopped working since. The actor scored appearances on shows like TEEN WOLF, GIRL MEETS WORLD and CASTLE before he got his big break recurring on the 2017 drama thriller ZOO. “It was so much fun,” he smiles. “The cast was great. It felt like summer camp. There were no egos on set. There was not a single person who made any day I worked not fun. I have a soft spot in my heart for the show. I still keep up with my castmates.”
Fast-forward three years and despite the Covid pandemic, he landed B&B, though his soap experience thus far has been anything but conventional. “It was my first Zoom process,” he explains of his audition. “This was totally new territory. The first audition was a self-pitch; the second was reading with [B&B Casting Director] Christy Dooley and the third was with Kiara [Barnes, Zoe].” De Metz received useful soap counsel from co-star Tanner Novlan (Finn). “Tanner had just started, and I’ve known him for years,” de Metz acknowledges. “We studied in the same acting studio and crossed paths during auditions, and I was like, ‘Dude, give me the lowdown about what I need to know.’ He told me, ‘It’s the pace. It’s not anything you’ve ever seen before.’ I was like, ‘Dude, I’ve heard this from everyone.’ I rolled my eyes. I was like, ‘Everyone is exaggerating and stressing me out for no reason.’ Well, it’s amazing how quickly you go from showing up to set to, ‘Action!’ It blew me out of the water. Tanner was not exaggerating. It was shocking. It keeps you on your toes and it keeps you engaged the entire day, and then you leave and it really feels like you had a full workout.”
The actor remembers his first day like it was yesterday. “It was a little odd,” he muses. “We had a little rehearsal, a little chit chat and when you’re up, you’re up. They bring you to stage, push you through the door and you’re like, ‘Hi, I’m here,’ and with social distancing, it made the whole interaction a little strange. I remember looking at Lawrence [Saint-Victor, Carter] and I was like, ‘This feels a little funny, doesn’t it?’ Now, I’m used to it and you sync into forming a relationship with whoever your scene partner or partners are while maintaining this distance. It was awkward to begin with, but then you get a sense of it like, ‘This is how the table is set,’ and you play it from there. Now it feels more natural and I think once this is over and we go back to normal intimacy and are able to touch and be close, that’s going to be something that feels different, too.”
After Zende’s disastrous flirtation with his pal’s fiancée, Zoe (“It felt like being in a pinball machine — and Zende was the pinball.”), de Metz is thrilled to see his character embark on his first full-fledged soap love story with Diamond White’s Paris. However, that has been affected by Covid, too. When the burgeoning couple shared their first kiss, the actor found himself smooching a mannequin. “It was completely ridiculous,” he chuckles. “It was my first experience and I wish I’d taken a photo for Instagram, or had Diamond take a photo, but there with this mannequin, which essentially looked like me. It was a version of my head shrunken. Apparently, there was some voodoo ceremony and they shrunk my head and made it plastic, and then put Diamond’s beret on top. It was like basically kissing me with a hat on. I had to close my eyes to make it work. For an actor, this is once in a lifetime — hopefully! But it’s something I’ll carry with me in my back pocket forever. I can’t wait until this Covid stuff is over.”
JPI
Now that’s he’s fully ingrained in the B&B cast, de Metz can’t wait for more. “We have many safety restrictions in place, which is great, and personally I think it makes production move even faster,” he points out. “The good thing is, there is no time to be stressed out or overwhelmed by everything. It’s just a lot of action, and when I walk away at the end of the day, I’m like, ‘Wow, this is a lot of fun. Put me back in, Coach. Let me go again. I’m ready!’
Clothes Make The Men
De Metz has become a fashion plate as Zende, thanks to B&B’s Executive Fashion Consultant Erica Pelosini. “She has 100 percent influenced me,” he praises. “She always sends me photos of things saying, ‘I’m digging this, this and this. What do you think?’ Erica definitely goes to the mat and sometimes I try and rein her in. There are times where I was like, ‘I don’t know about this. This seems a little much, even for me as a fashion designer.’ But then, I see it on camera and I’m like, ‘You were totally right. That looks really cool.’ ” He quickly learned that the wardrobe room can be cutthroat. “Sometimes she’ll text me, ‘Where are you for your fitting? Lawrence and Tanner are taking all of your looks,’ and I’m like, ‘Stop it! That’s not cool. My fittings have to come first because we’re the ones collaborating here.’ I’ll also send her pictures of stuff that I think is cool and we’ll have active discussions about it. Then, she’ll go contact a brand and pull all these great looks together. I swear, every single week that we have a fitting, Lawrence and Tanner steal everything before me. She’ll be like, ‘You need to get here quickly,’ and I will run there. I’ll be sweating and I’ll be like, ‘Lawrence, take that off right now! Tanner, that is not happening. Those are my loafers. You’re a lawyer. You’re a doctor. You don’t dress as cool as Zende, so you better not touch any of this stuff,’ but they do anyway.”
Just The Facts:
Birthday: April 9
Birthplace: New York, NY
Family Ties: Is of Dutch and Caribbean descent, via father Hans and mother Robin, and has a younger brother, Brando. “I’m a first generation American; both of my parents are immigrants, and I’m the first one in my immediate family to finish college. Getting a good education was very important to my parents.”
French Twist: Named after French actor Alain Delon. “The first film of his I saw was Purple Noon [1960], which served as the basis for The Talented Mr. Ripley. He’s definitely someone I gravitated toward — the coolness, that charisma, that strength. I hope it rubs off from the name.”
Taste Test: “I love Michael Shannon. I love Arnold Schwarzenegger. I watched everything Robert DeNiro did. My favorite performances of all [are] Daniel Day Lewis in There Will Be Blood and Christian Bale for American Psycho. I have very different tastes.”
Watch, Look, Listen: “I’ve been watching THE BOYS on Amazon. For books, there’s an old novel from the ’50s called The Once And Future King, a retelling of the King Arthur tale. It’s [story]telling is amazing. For film, I’d never seen Lost in Translation. I finally watched it and it’s now in my top five. It was a fantastic film.”
